Syracuse Upends Johns Hopkins at Homewood

Syracuse handed Johns Hopkins its
first loss of the season Saturday afternoon at Homewood
Field. (John Strohsacker)

BALTIMORE — Syracuse survived
another futile faceoff performance and the most prolific offensive
display by a Johns Hopkins player in 16 years to defeat the Blue
Jays 12-10 at Homewood Field in a matchup of college lacrosse
superpowers Saturday.

The 11th-ranked Orange (4-2) earned its second straight win
after consecutive losses to ACC foes Maryland and Virginia, dealing
third-ranked Johns Hopkins (5-1) its first loss of the season.
Syracuse now has won seven of the last eight games in the
series.

Saturday's win felt a lot like 2013. The Orange looked lost on
faceoffs, versatile on offense, stout on defense — with the
exception of an eight-goal outburst by Johns Hopkins sophomore
attackman Ryan Brown, the most by a Blue Jay since Dylan Schlott
scored seven against Villanova in 1998 — and opportunistic
all over the field.

"It's a huge win for us," Syracuse defenseman Matt Harris
said.

Attackman Dylan Donahue scored three goals and midfielder Billy
Ward added two goals and two assists to lead a balanced offensive
effort for the Orange.

But the real story was the defense, and Syracuse played a lot of
it, thanks to a 21-for-25 performance by Johns Hopkins specialist
Drew Kennedy. Employing a mix of man-to-man and zone, the Orange
limited looks for Wells Stanwick (two assists) and Brandon Benn
(one assist), leaving Brown to do all the heavy lifting for the
Blue Jays.

Even goalie Dom Lamolinara (11 saves) got in on the act
defending, often leaving the crease to double-team Stanwick behind
or cut off passing lanes.

Syracuse also got a boost from Harris, normally a long-stick
midfielder, who made his first start of the season on close defense
after switching positions in a 14-8 win over St. John's last week.
Harris finished with a goal and four ground balls, working in
concert with defensemen Brandon Mullins and Sean Young to confuse
the Blue Jays' renovated offense.

"In previous games, the goals we were giving up were a little
too easy for me. We mixed and matched and tried different players
at that third spot on close defense," Orange coach John Desko said.
"And finally last week we decided to bring Matt down. He's a senior
captain, and we wanted to eliminate a lot of those easy goals and
mistakes."

Syracuse twice built four-goal leads. The Orange led 7-3 at
halftime and answered a three-goal Johns Hopkins run (all scored by
Brown) with its own three-goal spurt. Harris showed he could still
be dangerous in transition, as he took an outlet pass from
Lamolinara, faked a pass to his left and scored to put Syracuse
ahead 10-6 with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter.

Brown came out firing again in the fourth quarter with three
unanswered goals — including an empty-netter from midfield
after Lamolinara went offside on a failed clear — to pull the
Blue Jays within one. Brown's eighth goal, which left him one shy
of an 87-year-old Johns Hopkins record (William Logan scored nine
against Virginia in 1927) made it 10-9 with 12:59 left in the
game.

Midfielder Nick Weston stopped the bleeding for Syracuse, taking
a skip pass over the top of the Blue Jays defense from midfielder
Billy Ward (two goals, two assists) and blowing a shot by Johns
Hopkins goalie Eric Schneider with 10:26 remaining.

But the Blue Jays answered just 48 seconds later, after another
faceoff win, when attackman Wells Stanwick found midfielder Holden
Cattoni for a goal at the 9:38 mark that pulled them within
one.

Despite trailing 11-10, Johns Hopkins had the momentum. But the
Blue Jays' next three possessions resulted in turnovers, first on a
shot clock violation, then on a timely strip by Syracuse long-stick
midfielder Scott Firman on Johns Hopkins midfielder Rob Guida and
finally on a failed clear by Schneider.

Orange attackman Dylan Donahue responded with his third goal of
the game, getting topside to his left off of a change-of-pace dodge
from behind and scoring to put Syracuse ahead 12-10 with 2:13
remaining.

The Blue Jays had one more chance, courtesy of another Kennedy
faceoff win. Cattoni spun off of his defender, got off a lefty shot
and hit the post. Orange long-stick midfielder Peter Macartney
secured the ground ball near the restraining line and Syracuse held
on for the victory.

News and Notes

- Syracuse attackman Randy Staats and midfielder Jordan Evans,
both dealing with undisclosed leg injuries, did not play Saturday.
Evans was in uniform and participated in pre-game warmups, but did
not get into the game.

- The Orange visit Duke next Sunday in a rematch of the 2013
NCAA championship game, in which the Blue Devils' Brendan Fowler
exploited Syracuse's faceoff woes. The Orange brought in junior
college transfer Mike Iacono as another option this season, but he
did not fare any better (1-for-5) than starting specialist Chris
Daddio (3-for-16) on Saturday. "In the championship game, we were
up 5-0 and 6-1, and all of a sudden they're 14-for-15 on faceoffs
in the second and third qurter. So we literally had to stand there
and watch them play offense," Desko said. "This is a big challenge
going into a game like that. We're working harder than we've ever
worked on the faceoff. We'll keep going with it and obviously make
some changes if we have to."

- Desko said Harris likely has found a permanent home on close
defense, and that he's comfortable with Firman and Macartney
receiving most of the reps at long-stick midfield. "Our pole
position is probably our deepest position," Desko said. "Especially
with the way [Harris] performed and especially being the offensive
threat he is, it's a no brainer for us."

- Donahue now has 18 goals on just 27 shots (66.7 percent) this
season.

- Pietramala said Johns Hopkins executed poorly in its two-man
sets on offense and criticized the defense for playing
"extraordinarily selfish." He also admitted the Blue Jays probably
should have played more zone defense and likely underestimated
Syracuse's midfield weapons. While Orange midfielder Hakeem Lecky
drew the long pole and did not score, Loy and Ward exploited their
short-stick matchups. "The three kids on their first midfield are
better in person than they are on film, and they're more athletic
in person than they are on film," Pietramala said.